City council discusses roads, sewers, comp plan

November 6, 2012

Infrastructure was the topic of much of the Marshalltown City Council's Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night.

Leon Lamer, at-large council member, took issue with sanitary sewer rates presented by Stantec Consulting, saying that the council needs to look closer at the flow rates and base rates. The way the rates are set up, he said, are inconsistent.

"The base rate should not have any flow in it, so everybody in town should have one base rate," he said. "That way, the customer can determine how big his bill is by how much he uses."

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T-R PHOTO BY DAVID ALEXANDERPhillip Carlson, with Stantec Consulting, speaks about the city’s proposed comprehensive plan Monday night at the Marshalltown City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting. The council will vote to adopt the plan at its Nov. 12 meeting. Iowa law requires each city have a comprehensive plan.

Phillip Carlson, with Stantec, also gave a brief presentation on the city's comprehensive plan that is scheduled for approval at the city council's Nov.12 meeting. The comprehensive plan lays out land use and design guidelines for the city through 2030.

He said the plan focuses on three concepts: connect, renew and design.

Roads also came up.

Lynn Couch, city engineer, said a study of the accident history at South Sixth Street and West Merle Hibbs Boulevard warrants the installation of a stop sign. Marshalltown has 941 stop signs, and he isn't usually a proponent of adding to that number.

"This one is warranted," he said.

Couch said there has been 14 crashes at that intersection in the past 10 years, most of which were during the day when the roads were dry. At least seven of those crashes were preventable, he said.

Soft spots made problematic because of excessive water also made a $12,000 change order for the Brentwood Place construction project necessary, Couch said.

On a similar note, certificates of completion will come to the council at its next meeting for the the Southridge Road rebuild, which has a $517,382 final cost, and the sewer rehab project started in 2007 but that the company's priority in handling extensive flooding in 2008 delayed.

The council will also vote to approve a $405,000 contract with Trojan Technologies of London, Ontario, Canada for the disinfection replacement project at the Water Pollution Control Plant.

In a special session following the Committee of the Whole, the council voted unanimously to extent local business Mechdyne Corporation's contract with the city for another year to allow the company to get its job numbers up.

Tom Deimelry, president of Marshall Economic Development Impact Committee, said the state has already approved the extension and that it would not extend the tax abatement the council previously approved.

The council also voted unanimously to set public hearing to vacate portions of Quarry Road and East Nevada Street that is of no use to the public and convey it to the adjacent property owner. That hearing is set for Nov. 26 council meeting.